I was wrong about Ben Bernanke’s appearance before the Senate committee yesterday.  Other than a marginal amount of political grandstanding, it did not get ugly.  It’s tough to take socialist Senator Sanders (VT) on this committee but I didn’t find his rants on the wealth and income gap to be any more ridiculous than if any other senator had spoken them.  I was expecting the Dems to throw some tough shots at the chairman, but instead they just lobbed in softballs and of course, the Republicans did the same.  For his part, Bernanke handled it all very well.  I don’t know if this is part of the “new kinder gentler” Democrat-controlled Congress or if they were setting him up for some future bashing.  Time will tell - but this time I have to give them credit and admit that I was wrong.